Man U hears call of mobile money

Manchester United is weighing up a move into mobile telephony through selling branded handsets to its millions of fans around the world, and then running the service itself.

'Its a real possibility and is something that we have been actively considering,' said Andy Anson, Man Utd's commercial director. The financial outlay would be kept to a minimum as the club is not about to go out and spend billions buying a network. The model would be Virgin Mobile, which rents capacity from established operators, but Anson says: 'There are cheaper options that we are looking at - things have moved on even since Virgin.'

Man Utd already runs a financial services and credit card arm, which is highly profitable. Anson is now looking at ways to generate additional revenue.

The club was taken over by the American Glazer family last year following a highly leveraged deal that was opposed by many fans. But Anson and the Glazers pulled off a coup last week when they clinched the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in English football by signing a four-year contract for £56.5m with US insurance company American International Group.

AIG replaces Vodafone, which cancelled its United sponsorship three years into a four-year deal worth £28m.

The contract with AIG followed a row between United and Mansion, a Gibraltar-based online gaming group. Mansion said it had offered to pay £70m over four years before United ended talks.

But Anson said that United took the deal that was best for the club. AIG is best known in the US but also has a following in Asia, where it has 250,000 employees. United wants to expand in the Far East.

The transaction comes at a time when United could do with a fillip to its financial position, which is under pressure. The club's relative failure on the pitch in recent seasons has cost them tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue.

United was recently overtaken as the world's richest club by Real Madrid. The club's profits fell by £12.3m to £46m in its 2004-05 financial year.